Flooding

Did you know....?

The River Trent has a history of flooding going back more than 650 years. When a river floods a lot of damage can be done to homes and the land. Action has been taken along the Trent to try to prevent flooding. Those actions are:

	The river channel can be made bigger by taking material from the bottom and the sides of the river. Also, the banks of the river can be made higher. The banks are called dykes.
	Extra river channels or ditches can be built. Extra water will run into this channel. The water is controlled by sluices.
	Sluices are gates which hold back water from the fields when heavy rain happens. This stops the river rising too quickly and flooding villages and towns. There are sluices at Holme.

Due to these actions there are less floods today than there used to be. Government organisations watch the amount of rain that falls and send warnings to the people and places threatened by flood.

You should also know that flooding is not always bad. The river water carries material that enriches the earth. There is very good, fertile farm land on the flood plain. Some wildlife loves land that has been flooded.